Cops grill De Niro on prostitution ring

John Lichfield, LONDON INDEPENDENT

Published
4:00 am PST, Wednesday, February 11, 1998

PARIS - French police questioned Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro for more than nine hours in connection with the investigation of a deluxe prostitution ring and then released him without pressing charges, justice sources said.

De Niro's attorney, former French Justice Minister Georges Kiejman, said Tuesday that the actor had been questioned about his relations with a prostitute involved in the ring, which was aimed at wealthy Middle East clients.

Kiejman said he would sue investigating magistrate Frederic N'Guyen for violation of secrecy during an investigation and for unlawfully hampering De Niro's movements.

"I was shocked and upset by the way in which he was treated in a case in which his name came up only incidentally," Kiejman said.

Five people have already been placed under formal investigation in a 15-month-old inquiry, which has revealed a call-girl network with tentacles around the globe. Among the clientele are reportedly Saudi princes and other Persian Gulf potentates.

French celebrities also have been questioned in the investigation. Prostitution is legal in France, though procuring is not.

The affair began with the routine bugging and phone-tapping of a suspected prostitution ring, operating from the 16th arrondissement, one of the wealthiest quarters of Paris.

The inquiry led to the arrest in January last year of a Swedish former model, Annika Brumark, the apparent head of the network. Other arrests included a photographer, Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, who specialized in glamour shots for up-market magazines, and a Lebanese businessman named Nazihabdulatis Al Ladki.

Investigators seized diaries, records and address books with the names of young women and their international clients. Al Ladki also revealed the names of other alleged clients, including Saudi and Gulf princes.&lt;